Collaborations

In 1927 the famous Danish explorer Henning Haslund-Christensen set out on an expedition to the far west of China, in search for the last remaining great Mongol Khan. This was a moment where great nations were rising. Haslund-Christensen was a caravan leader for the Swedish explorer Dr. Sven Hedin.

The British Empire was at the height of its power. The Soviet Union had conquered Siberia. China had subjugated the Mongol hordes. But in Western China, beyond the reach of these 􀁉􀁜powers, at the heart of where the Great Game took place, legend said a great Khan with strong spiritual powers led a strong horde of herdsmen. They would reside in a great capital far into the Tian Shan mountains. Henning Haslund-Christensen’s journey took years to complete, traversing deserts and mountains on camelback. There were moments, where he thought the legend was nothing but a fatamorgana. But the further west he got, the legend only grew stronger, until the day he arrived at the secret capital of the great Blue Mongols.

Many years later Henning Haslund-Christensen’s descendants, Søren and Michael, son and grandson, will journey back to this mythical land. To search for the remains of a prophecy told by the great Khan to their ancestor.

Syrian radio host Obaidah Zytoon and her friends are caught up in the euphoria of the 2011 Arab Spring. Camera in hand, these artists and activists take to the streets to protest Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and record their experiences. They talk about art and relationships as much as politics. But as they film themselves over the next several years, their hopes for a better future are tested by violence, imprisonment, and death.

Siberia is a fiction film based on the diaries and stories of danish adventurer and anthropologist Rane Willerslev. After graduating, 18-year old Rane is fed up with life and his strained relationship to his father. One night he packs his bags and leaves home without saying goodbye. He departures from Denmark heading towards eastern Siberia in the hope of finding the Yukaghir tribe, which has fascinated him through old stories since his early youth. But rather than the romantic hunter people which Rane has dreamt of, he meets a society in dissolution - corrupted by violence and abuse. In an attempt to help the Yukaghir break free from the mafia-controlled fur company Sakhabult, Rane gets caught up in a life-threatening escape into the Siberian wilderness.

“Dancing with Monica” is a diary of a trafficked woman. The Danish director Anja Dalhoff follows the Colombian woman Monica from 2010-2017 in a close and intimate portrait where Monica’s own footage weaves into her ongoing story.

Violence is a fact of everyday life in Colombia, where the drug cartels have kept the country in an armed conflict for decades, and where almost all families have lost a loved one. But the unorthodox presidential candidate Antanas Mockus does all he can to reverse the vicious circle with an imaginative and positive election campaign. And he brings experience with him.